It would certainly help you track down a missing laptop, but it may not be as effective as tracking device though. I mean what if the laptop gets formatted by the thief. But on the other hand, if it goes missing why not it could become very useful to tracking it down.
I've also found this article that describes how to retrieve a missing laptop, using other techiniques and a freeware software called Adeona
http://www.ehow.com/how_4500828_privately-...p-computer.html